6 Network Marketing Truths To Remember When They Recruit You to Join an MLM Business

Introduction

Network Marketing, Multi-Level Marketing, Direct Selling. These names all describe the same system, which we will just call "MLM."

So what is an MLM? Start with a normal business. A company has some stuff to sell. Before the existence of media outlets, such as TV, radio, billboards, and so on, the company would pay a bunch of sales reps (called consultants, advisors, distributors, members, associates...) to sell the product to people. That's a typical sales scenario. Tupperware was there long before MLM. You, as a salesperson, would buy stuff from the company at wholesale prices, sell it locally at retail, and pocket the profits. There was no middleman, so it was "direct selling." As a traveling salesperson, you operated with low overhead, with no storefront to worry about.

However, paying a crowd of sales reps creates a problem for the company, in that not all sales reps are equal. Some are good sellers, others are not. The company has to manage all the different reps, and it is complicated. Then someone came up with the idea: Why not let the reps manage other reps? Just reward the rep who recruited good reps by giving them a share of the profits. The more the "lower" reps (the recruitees) sell, the more the "higher" rep (the recruiter) makes in bonus. So the recruiter has the incentive to recruit good people, which benefits both himself and the company. Thus was born "multi-level marketing", or MLM. The recruiter became known as the "upline", and the recruitee became the "downline."

Later, when "MLM" became associated with some pyramid schemes disguised as MLMs, the term "Network Marketing" was used.

Most MLMs are done wrong, pitched as a get-rich-quick scheme, and quickly collapse, leaving their reps up the creek without a paddle. Furthermore, it further confuses the issue that many scams disguise themselves as MLMs. Studies have shown that in the 30 largest MLMs, OVER 99% of participants actually posted a LOSS!

In view of the risks, here are a few things you need to be aware of before you join an MLM.

An MLM that emphasizes recruiting over marketing can turn into a pyramid scheme. | Source

1. Marketing = Sales

To succeed in multi-level marketing, you have to SELL things, and sell a LOT of things. Marketing means sales. If you already have the gift of gab, and can convince people to buy things from you, congratulations; you may have a chance. If you can't sell, and are not a people person, then you have a long way to go before you can succeed in an MLM, and you may want to consider another path.

And if you were told you don't need to sell anything, just recruit, you are in a "pyramid scheme," not an MLM.

One of the big controversies with the MLM system is the cost of marketing. The company is passing on the cost of marketing AND some of the profit onto the reps so that the reps can do advertising. But does the company actually pass ENOUGH profit for the reps to do so? You can probably recruit the first few customers or reps for your team for little or no cost from your circle of friends and family, but most cannot expand their clients or team beyond that without expending significant money on marketing. This leads to the charge by some critics of MLM that most MLM companies are only out there to exploit this free marketing and recruiting from a rep's initial circle. This is not the complete truth; but it's not far from the truth.

If you cannot sell the product to a stranger, consider whether you can sell the product at all. Selling to friends and family does NOT count as selling. Most friends and family will buy something from you because you asked, but that will cost you somehow, just not in $$$.

Many prominent studies show that vast majority of MLM reps (> 99%!) actually LOSE money, as they vastly underestimate the cost of marketing, and vastly overestimate the size of the potential market or prospect pool for the product they are trying to sell.

EXAMPLE: Penn & Teller's cable show BULLS***! Season 8 Episode 5, titled "Easy Money", is a condemnation of MLM. Take the ManCave rep for example. He is expected to host the party, provide all the booze and meat and snacks and whatnot. Even with the high margins on the few items he does sell, he barely breaks even on that sales event. When you throw in the time taken, prep time, and clean-up, he probably would be better off working at McDonalds. Another guy spends 12 hours a day promoting this nutritional drink for 9 months, and actually LOSES money, instead of making any. And these are typical results.

2. "Niche Product" Does NOT Mean Sales

Just because the product is "cool" or "unique" (i.e. niche) does NOT mean you can sell it. You may not have the right mix of potential customers in your area, or you simply may not have access to that pool of prospects. You better figure this out BEFORE you join and plunk down money for the intro kit.

Again, consider: how you would access that pool of prospects? How much marketing money and time would you have to spend? What do you expect the conversion rate to be (that is, how many pitches will end up making a sale)? Will you make enough on the sales to justify the marketing dollars spent, and make a profit?

Most product literature always makes the product sound like the Second Coming. If it's a nutritional supplement, it will cure every ailment under the sun, from AIDS to gout (just kidding). If it's cosmetics, it'll make you 20-30 years younger.

But think about a product like that. Do people really NEED that, or just WANT that?

This is the danger of those miracle juice / pill MLMs. Those products are actually luxury items. People WANT the miracle product, but they don't NEED it. You have to convince people that they need this product for their well-being. In a depressed economy, the market for luxury items dries up, yet it is during these times that recruiting hits fever pitch, probably because candidates are more vulnerable, more susceptible to recruiting speeches about having a "secondary source of income."

Also, consider the product type. Does the product get used up? Or just used? Cosmetics, nutritional supplements, and so on are consumed, so people who like the product will always order more. On the other hand, some products simply do not lend themselves to repeat business. How many sex toys or personal alarms would someone need?

EXAMPLE: I had a friend who was recruited into selling Quorum personal security items, like bike locks and personal sirens. Selling these items is a dead end, as each person only needs one, so he has to constantly look for new clients. There is virtually no repeat business. It is much harder work than he realized.

Also, keep in mind that the business opportunity itself is NOT the product. If anyone is selling the opportunity as the product, it's a scam. They are selling membership, in order to sell ... more membership.

The product makes all the difference. Calculate the market for the product, and discount any hyperbole or sales projections from your upline or the company. They are always too optimistic. THEN calculate the cost to reach such a market in your area.

The network is not as important as the marketing.

3. Marketing > Network

The marketing is more important than the network. In the term "network marketing", the primary word is MARKETING. "Network" is an adjective, modifying "marketing", and thus is secondary. The primary purpose of network marketing is to market a product, and ultimately, to sell a product. The secondary purpose of network marketing is to establish a network of reps to form a team in order to expand sales.

It is easy for those pitching the opportunity to you to make the wrong emphasis, to portray the easy life: "Just sit there and let your team do the sales, and you rake in the $$$." However, this picture is a lie. Finding the right people to recruit is not that simple. It takes more than passion to sell, and selling large amounts isn't easy. Most of these bonuses are less than 10%. If your downline sells $1000 worth of merchandise, you may pocket up to $100. However, if you sell the same amount of merchandise yourself, you can probably pocket quite a bit more, as the margin on MLM products is typically 100% (i.e. $500 profit on $1000 sales).

Legitimate MLMs, in order to reduce their uplines' reliance on sales commissions and encourage the upline to actually sell something, limit the level of downline sharing. They do this by using a reducing scale (the further the downline, the lesser the share) or imposing a cutoff (no sharing after the 5th level, for example). If you see an MLM that promises to share "infinite levels," or allows you to "stack" (that is, buy multiple positions), it's very likely a scam, because it emphasizes recruiting over actual selling.

If anyone who's trying to recruit you emphasizes recruiting over marketing a product, that recruiter is doing it WRONG, unless the company itself also has the same emphasis on networking and recruiting over marketing, in which case the whole company is probably a scam.

EXAMPLE: TVI Express, whose FAQ specifically states "You don't need to sell any products," was declared a pyramid scheme on three continents. It has no sales, and was all recruitment.

The American Federal Trade Commission (FTC), which oversees consumer affairs in the United States, has a "Koscot Test"; it requires any MLM in the US to base its bonus at least 70% on actual sales (by a downline), and less than 30% based on recruitment (of the downline). An MLM not compliant with this criterion risks being ruled a pyramid scheme and shut down.

The emphasis in a sales network must always be on sales, not recruiting. Anyone switching this emphasis is either doing their job wrong, or scamming.

4. Upline = Boss

Your upline is your boss in this business, and your success depends on finding the right one. He (or she) should teach you what you need to do to succeed. To that end, he should show you, by example, how it's done. Eventually you will need to pass on the knowledge to those you recruit yourself.

If he is not teaching you, not arranging team meetings where techniques can be shared, doing more recruiting than selling, or doing other things that make you uncomfortable, you're either with the wrong upline, or in the wrong business.

Your upline or boss should also be ethical. All legitimate MLMs have a "code of ethics" which all reps must agree to upon joining, where any deviation may result in investigation and even dismissal. If your boss is using logical fallacies, unverified claims, or any unethical behavior to score a sale or obtain a recruit, you should run away as fast as possible. Such behavior may be endemic in the company, or it could just be your upline, but in either case, beware.

A good upline will allow you to shadow him for a few days to see how he does business, and is willing to answer questions on how long has he been at this, how much has he made from sales, and so on. Honesty is important. If you're being recruited by someone who's only been at it for three weeks and has yet to make a sale, then you're dealing with a scammer.

The ethical way of recruiting is to only recruit an existing customer. If someone presents the business immediately out of the blue as a "money making opportunity," and barely mentions the product, he's doing it wrong (see #3 above), and is not behaving ethically.

Your upline should be a mentor out to teach and inspire sales, and must be ethical and honest. Treat him like a boss. If the boss lies and cheats, leave.

5. Are You an "Easy Mark"?

MLM reps will often market towards people who are desperate for more income, don't have enough savings, know nothing about owning a business or franchise, know only how to work as an employee (that is, by following orders), know nothing about selling, and want quick money with minimal work. These people will jump at a "money making opportunity" and will be easy to recruit, and might even score a few sales by pushing the "intro kit".

What aggressively-recruiting reps don't realize is that these "easy marks" would make very bad sales reps in general, and MLM reps in particular, because they can't sell. They sell the wrong things (recruitment instead of the product), at the wrong time or in the wrong situation, to the wrong people, and generally let their desperation show, driving away potential customers.

Furthermore, a "team" of easy marks often devolves into a personality cult, where the upline becomes a cult leader indoctrinating all downlines, and the desperate are eager to embrace a cult, because they need to follow a leader, having a E-quadrant ("Employee") personality (according to Robert Kiyosaki in the Cashflow Quadrant). This often leads to problems if the leader is not completely ethical. Like attracts like: these desperate people simply recruit more desperate people, none of whom actually know how to sell, and the team and its leader just go on recruiting more desperate people. This degeneration essentially turns an MLM into a pyramid scheme, with little if any sales.

During such a spiral, some of these leaders may order their downlines to ignore all criticism, all "negativity." No doubts concerning the MLM and its leader are allowed to exist.

"Easy marks" are also vulnerable to dogma and logical fallacies presented as facts during their recruitment meeting and subsequent meetings. Then, such folks, when they wake up, blame their upline, their MLM, and the entire MLM industry for their failures, and become poison pills to the whole MLM industry.

If you are an "easy mark", do NOT join. People will simply take advantage of you. Do NOT join MLM if you are desperate for another source of income, looking to get rich quickly, and so on. There's nothing wrong with having goals, but your vulnerability will show, and unless you are lucky you will be taken advantage of.

6. Beware Unscrupulous Leaders

MLM is "remote" work. Any official training, if it exists at all, is done remotely via VHS tape, DVD, and Internet streaming video, or if someone has time, video conference or webcam. There are no ethics police involved day-to-day to make sure all the reps are behaving ethically. Although legitimate MLM companies have a code of ethics which all reps must agree to upon joining, enforcement is haphazard. In a more traditional workplace, company supervisors will keep eyes on the reps, with periodic reports and a mechanism for customers to complain to higher-ups. In an MLM you have to complain straight to the company's ethics panel or customer service.

In a regular company, to be employed, you have to pass an interview and probably a background check, and even a second interview. To work in an MLM, you pretty much just buy the intro kit, fill out an application, and that's it. There is no initial culling process in a MLM to weed out unscrupulous recruits. Unscrupulous recruits then become unscrupulous leaders by recruiting people.

Most MLM reps will not outright lie, but many will equivocate, perhaps unconsciously. They emphasize the easy-to-sell parts, ideas like "Sit there and let the team sell things while you reap the profits", and simply neglect to mention the parts about hard work selling stuff yourself.

The truly nasty ones will recruit you with lies, get you to buy the intro kit at inflated prices, and then leave you to fend for yourself, and convince you it's YOUR FAULT that you can't sell anything, because selling is so obvious, and you should have dragged all your friends, neighbors, and family into this already (so he can make his sales bonuses).

A "team" without oversight often devolves into a personality cult, where the upline becomes a cult leader indoctrinating all downlines, and the desperate are often eager to follow a leader who may not be completely ethical. This devolution can turn a legitimate MLM into an illegal pyramid scheme that preys upon new recruits.

One more problem with the lack of oversight is the lack of a way for a company to regulate or do anything about what the reps are telling people about the company. Legitimate companies should limit their reps to only pre-approved marketing materials. Not-quite-legitimate companies will allow their reps to say almost anything.

This lack of oversight has also led a huge number of scams to disguise themselves as MLMs, by adopting the same buzzwords (matrix, payout, upline, teamwork), emphasizing recruiting, and barely mentioning selling anything. You "work hard" by recruiting a lot of people, and ignore selling. This also leads to a secondary market of "marketing coaches" who try to teach people how to recruit. Many of these coaches are also MLM members, making their tactics very shady. (And a scammer would not care about the company image at all.)

There are many unscrupulous uplines in legitimate MLMs, as well as many scams disguised as MLMs. Watch out for both.

Personally, I Would Not Join ANY MLM

The MLM system attracts unscrupulous and vulnerable personalities due to its nature. I would recommend you NOT to join MLMs, despite what the recruiters tell you. Too many of them are telling half-truths or outright lies in order to recruit. This, plus all of the other problems, makes MLMs just too dangerous to people who are not familiar with the business model—and those who are familiar with the business model would never join.

If despite my best efforts to convince you otherwise, you are NOT dissuaded from joining, you should study your opportunity thoroughly for at least a full week, if not a full month, before joining. You cannot base your near future on a short one-hour presentation or some people's mere words. Always be a skeptic when it comes to promises. You must investigate ANY claim yourself. Any statistic or claim can be faked or less than the whole truth.

You need to shadow the upline, learn how he or she goes about his or her business. If you have any doubt about his or her ethics, then this business is not for you.

If you have any remaining doubts, you should not join. After all, your future is riding on it.

Questions & Answers

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Comments

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Congruent Thoughts

5 months ago

Hi. Very interesting and IMO very tru fact’s about MLM. Many things we did allready experience in the very beginning - like the cult around a upline and the ethical standarts are depenting on every person indivitual and there is no controll, who does enter the business. But this we also did experience with all the other businesses in town or the world, during a long life. Everything is depenting on the honesty of the salesperson behind the counter. And we did see as Entrepreneurs, 95% of all the new businesses and shops, did die after a periode of 10 years. We also did see during the last couple of years, more and more people in town get indepentant Network Marketing reps and do make more money a month, then we do in a year. And this is residual income. When we stop working in our business, our income will stop the same day. We see the future very clearly now and see most of the shops in town desappear now, the bank, the postoffices, coffeshops and pizza is still working well. People are ordering on internett and all the thing who were really florishing in the last century, are disappearing on by one.

I think your did show very clearly where all the weak points in NWM are and did not mention all the other businesses in the world are functioning as pyramide schemes too. But there we get no payments for our effort. The Big companies do not pay over 50% of all income back to the people who buy their stuff. This is for 2017 out of US$189.6 billion back to the associates US$98 billion...! This is more income than the entire Movie and music industry together. And still are many people who think there is hartly no one who makes money in Network Marketing. Paying back close to 100 billion dollar must be a solide income for a aweful lot of people. So most of your facts may be correct, but your conclusion may lead us in the wrong direction. Backward to the old system of the huge multimillionær company’s who have a huge adverdicing budget and huge incom only at the toplevel. The rest just gets normal payments and perhaps a bonus ones a while.

The question is: when you show us all the weaknnesses of MLM, what can we do to make a much stronger and better businessmodel with the right product and the right company? How to find new prospects and make sure, they are not violating the corevalues of a good company? How can we build up a honest and staples system for the future, who is based on equal opportunities in s team like we have it in Network Marketing and direct sales? What are the options? And how do you experience an ever growing market to be evaluated by all companies on one level combined, whilst we never do that with all supermarket and shops and stores in the World, and tell people about some storeowneres are cheeting and therefor keep away from every shop in the world, because the entire market is corrupt. Whilst the the Network marketing business is growing every year, we need to differensate from company to company - like we do it with non MLM companies all the time, and differensate about the very different upline in every MLM company. And then find tools to prevent there are black sheeps everywhere - even doctors and prests can do things we never did expect . So why blame the entire NWM industry, when some does some unethical moves, to make ‘big money fast’. How can we lift up the quality of this industry, instead of blaming and complaining, who lead us to nothing?

peter

14 months ago

Perfectly describes it all.

100% truth.

Kim B

17 months ago

To the author: hmm, have you watched any TV ads in the past, say, 50 years? No logical fallacies there! Marketing done anywhere, at anytime, by anyone, lends itself to all pitfalls mentioned. Have you actually joined a legit MLM company? This info is generalistic and a bit outdated. I have several friends who belong to various direct sales companies who sell all kinds of products. I found one that I liked as well. I can assure you that these people are neither desperate, ignorant or unethical! The contrary, actually! Before my involvement I would probably have agreed with you (due to hearsay, not actual experience or research). But this has not been my experience in my organization or in watching my friends get started in theirs. . The points you make here could be made of any traditional company engaged in any kind of sales/marketing effort! My husband owns a traditional sales company, of which you would approve, and most of the pitfalls and disadvantages of which you speak could be said of his, or any other traditional marketing.

Tvg

2 years ago

Very one sided and biased argument, I agree that with anything, research is integral before investing time and money and yes, there are scams out there. But to condemn all MLM companies under the false pretense that they are unethical or unsustainable is short sited. I guess it comes down to, follow the advice of the likes of Warren Buffet or Robert Kiyosaki (successful business men) who see the value in MLM businesses or some blogger that has an opinion of why it "probably" won't work.

AUTHOR

kschang

2 years agofrom San Francisco, CA, USA

@Sandi -- I never said I had bad experiences with MLM. If you think that's the only reason people would want to evaluate MLM with a more realistic view, you have much to learn about life.

@Jason Lee -- Upline is the closest analog to your boss in MLM in that what you do benefits him or her directly, and s/he is motivated to help you realize your potential... or to exploit you using machiavellian means.

Sandi B

2 years ago

Sorry you have had bad results and experiences with Network Marketing. I have loved it for over 40 years and have been very successful with it. The "freedom factors" when you choose the right company to represent, and help the people you involve to succeed with you, create the lifestyle and freedoms that are unmatched.

Jodie

3 years ago

I found your article to be very useful up to the point where you withdrew any endorsement of MLM. I have been with two reputable MLMs and seen wonderful training and support from uplines.

MLMs are hard work and definitely require time, dedication, and some financial out put in marketing. This is true of ANY business venture. Anyone who believes there is a get rich quick scheme that actually works is a fool.

HennieN

3 years agofrom South Africa

I am also not a fan of MLM as I do not enjoy cold calling. I have joined a MLM almost two years ago and am not putting in effort into this venture.

I have started building a list of people that I am currently building a relationship with. Once these people know and trust me, I am planning on introducing them to my MLM opportunity.

The focus for me is on providing value and not just trying to make the sale.

Will keep you posted on my results.

faymct

4 years ago

very well written article. There quite a bit of truth in there. I am already part of an MLM. I was recruited on the basis of 'TRUST". I did not fully understand the system, nor was I given the time to actually search about it. The uplines keep training sessions and all the people are required to pay an entrée fee to all these sessions. I joined the MLM as an unemplyed housewife (doctor by profession), and having no source of income I actually used to calculate how much they make u spend rather than u earning out of the whole scheme! every week there are training sessions, and then to top it over they force u to travel to various countries to attend their conventions, ripping out your pocket. and if u don't, then the uplines just tell u that 'U are not serious about ur business'. Its just an excuse to make more money from the people who get recruited. I can write a full article based on my experiences, but i will end here for now....

(I had searched for how to recruit people for MLM so i came across this article... ) why you will ask? because I don't feel comfortable recruiting my friends and family. I feel i will be lying to them and selling them a lousy product and deceiving them into thinking its a great scheme. So in context, I don't know how to recruit strangers!

AUTHOR

kschang

4 years agofrom San Francisco, CA, USA

As long as you FULLY understand what you're getting into I have no problem with MLM.

It's the unscrupulous folks out there who only knows how to recruit that ruin the MLM image.

Juan Samsel

4 years agofrom Charlotte, NC, United States

what an article amazing topic and style of article, i m enjoy it.

Elie

4 years ago

This is the stupidiest article about network marketing I ever heard. No surprise why people have the wrong idea about MLM.

Omg. The person who wrote this thing should find another job. There is enough sh*t on the internet. Please go home and find a job.

Jimmy

4 years ago

I find your article to be quite biased. People deserve to know facts. Where are you getting your statistics that 99 percent of people lost money? I don't see any sources. Network marketing is similar to real estate agencies and travel agencies in business structure except every rep has the opportunity to recruit and earn from their down lines sales. It's far from easy and if it was the reward wouldn't be as great. It may be a long road but I'd suggest giving it a try. Working part time to eventually supplement your income is a far better plan than just waiting until your old enough for retirement to really experience life living off of the fading social security and the 401k that has far less value than when you started due to inflation. Network Marketing may not be for everyone but in this new age we all need a back up plan.

Christy Rivers

4 years ago

Awesome article. Really enjoyed reading and learn some new things along the way. Thank You

AUTHOR

kschang

5 years agofrom San Francisco, CA, USA

Different people have different priorities on risk and reward. My hub is about the misrepresentations of MLM being low risk and high reward when it's NEITHER. Whether the risks are justifiable to one vs. a regular job is up to that individual, but he can't make decision without having ALL the information.

crogers

5 years ago

@kschang....

I read the article, I don't think its very informative here is why. Companies lay off employees everyday. I have watched people put in 20 or more years only to be layed off due to no fault of their own. Add in the fact that after many years of service the only way they could make more money is if someone quit, retired, or die regardless of how hard they work. That is more of pyramid scheme. Back to the original point, if companies lay people off in this manner,why do you advocate not looking for something else better. Pushing people towards this life style of no control and low reward is not any better. Its far worst because you have no control over when you work, how you work and home much money you can make for working. The harder you work the more money a company makes, but that rarely translates into more personal money for yourself. But then again maybe you are on that upper level that benefits from this system. If you don't believe me ask around. I am sure I can find a few to back this up....

AUTHOR

kschang

6 years agofrom San Francisco, CA, USA

@Kerwyn -- unlike Fitzpatrick and Taylor, I don't think MLM is all negative. However, I do believe that constant vigilance is needed to prevent any... "backsliding" toward pyramid scheme, to which MLM is a very close relative. As you said, due diligence is always needed.

As for Kiyosaki... his words can be used many ways, and not all of his words make sense (some are even self-conflicting). It's used to make a point, nothing more.

Kerwyn

6 years ago

@kschang - Fair enough. By describing it as the "dark side," you automatically acknowledge there is a brighter side. As for "endorsement by association," that was never my intention. I simply found it interesting that one person you quoted in your arguments against network markting endorses it, along with some of his closest peers. That you then turn around and pan his advice as being impractical makes one wonder why you chose to refer to his wisdom to help bolster your point.

Still, you readily admit the posting is slanted towards the potential negatives, and that's a valid approach. It's important to help others keep things in perspective. I AGREE that people should exam companies rationally, without hype. Not everyone should be involved with network marketing because it is a business model, and some people aren't ready to run a business. Additionally, not all companies are created equal, whether MLM/network marketers or more traditional business models. A person definitely needs to do his/her due diligence. I've had to tell prospects that this (our opportunity) may NOT be for them.

Thanks for highlighting these concerns. It helps to keep us all on our toes, and examine how honestly and accurately we present our opportunity to others.

AUTHOR

kschang

6 years agofrom San Francisco, CA, USA

@Kerwyn -- You *do* realize that Kiyosaki just had one of his companies declared bankruptcy, right? And most business coaches regard his advice is rather... inspirational, instead of practical? Donald Trump had always been more bark than bite. He was a great businessman... now, not so much. As for Warren Buffett, the only MLM he retained is Pampered Chef, which is more direct sales than MLM. Perhaps you should consider the problems of MLM with a bit more seriousness instead of attempting to do "endorsement by association". Yes, the article is not balanced, nor was it meant to be. It's about the "dark side" of MLM, about things they don't tell you about MLM before you join.

Kerwyn

6 years ago

This is a well-written, but woefully one-sided article. It's so interesting that you quote Robert Kiyosaki, yet he is a PROPONENT of network marketing. It's the subject of his most recent book, "The Business of the 21st Century." And the book he co-authored with Donald Trump just prior also endorses network marketing! Add to the list Warren Buffet, arguably the country's most successful investor which also makes him savvy at evaluating businesses, trends, and industries. With that, you have a trifecta of credible people all endorsing an industry you say you would never enter. Perhaps you should do some more research and present a more balanced viewpoint as a follow up after checking out what the highly successful and very knowledgeable people mentioned above have to say.

chezmadeline@hotmail.com

6 years ago

I absolutely loved your article. I shared it on LinkedIn and Twitter. I work in Direct Sales, but have been trying to understand the business more as a hobby. I believe there are a lot of things that direct sellers (not the company) are ashamed to tell.

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